PUTRAJAYA, 30 April 2009: Former communist leader Chin Peng today failed in his last bid to live in Malaysia after the Federal Court here upheld two lower courts’ decisions compelling him to produce his identification documents before he can be permitted to enter this country.

Chin Peng (Pic extracted from the cover of his book My Side of History, published by Media Masters Singapore, 2003)Justices Datuk S Augustine Paul, Datuk Hashim Yusof and Datuk Wira Ghazali Mohd Yusof made the decision after dismissing Chin Peng’s motion for leave to appeal.

Chin Peng, whose real name is Ong Boon Hua, was appealing against the Appeal Court’s decision on 20 June 2008, which ruled that Chin Peng must produce his birth certificate or citizenship to prove that he is a Malaysian citizen before he can pursue his legal action against the Malaysian government.

Appeals Court Judge Datuk Abdul Malik Ishak, in his decision, had said the documents were important to ascertain Chin Peng’s status since the National Registration Department could not find any record of his birth.

It had also held that the High Court was correct to compel the 85-year-old Chin Peng to furnish his birth certificate and citizenship to prove that he was a Malaysian citizen before allowing him to proceed with his application for a declaration that he could reside here.

“Of Malaysian origin”

Chin Peng’s first bid to obtain the declaration was turned down when the High Court threw out his originating summons after he failed to comply with the court’s ruling to produce his birth certificate and citizenship papers.

Today, counsel Raja Aziz Addruse, for Chin Peng, contended that proof of citizenship was not required for the applicant to exercise his right to enter Malaysia, as it could also be proved by calling his brother or teacher to testify.

He said under clause 3(1) of the peace agreement entered between the government and the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) dated 2 Dec 1989, members of the CPM who were of Malaysian origin and wished to be settled in Malaysia shall be allowed to do so in accordance with the law.

“The court should look at what ‘Malaysian origin’ means. It is the function of this court to interpret the international agreement,” said Raja Aziz.

On 4 March 2005, Chin Peng filed his originating summons to obtain a declaration to be permitted to enter and live in Malaysia, naming the government, home minister, inspector-general of police and the armed forces chief as defendants.

Chin Peng, who is currently living in Thailand, claimed that he was entitled to come back to Malaysia because he is of Malaysian origin, having been born on 20 Oct 1923 in Sitiawan, Dinding, Perak, and having grown up in Malaysia.

He claimed that his birth was registered, and that he had once possessed a formal copy of the certificate. — Bernama

Miiah: If you think Chin Peng deserves to come home, please don’t put my name in the Welcome Home Committee.

My great grandfather went missing after he was taken by the communist when the Bintang Tiga was in power for 14 days. I have an uncle who was shot in an ambush at Gopeng when serving as a special constable, and a classmate who lost her father in a shootout near Sg Siput.

I hear that the people from his own kampung and in Manjung (formerly Dindings) are not keen for him to come back as many people in there were killed during the insurgency. But perhaps it is time for forgiveness and reconciliation. And perhaps his coming back will help that.

What irony. The whole world knows that he is the leader of the Malayan Communist Party and yet they refuse to believe he is a Malaysian, technically. The whole world already knows that there is only 1Malaysia all this while and yet they are “now” shouting 1Malaysia. Nothing to shout about.

I don’t think the government is afraid of what Chin Peng might do. It’s more of what will be done to Chin Peng if he returns. I mean, he was responsible for a lot of bloodshed, and there are a lot of people who lost their family members during the communist insurrection that would not pass the chance to wring his neck the moment he’s on Malaysian soil.

In spite of the decision of the court and the Malaysian government, if not for Chin Peng and his fighters, the British government would not have negotiated and the then Malaya would not have gained independence in 1957. Chin Peng and his comrades, more than anyone else, will be remembered in history for fighting the Japanese occupation, ending British colonialism and as fighters for national self-determination. No one can deny this historical truth.

I am flabergasted that the judiciary is acting and behaving in this manner! Chin Peng’s identity can be easily eastablished as he has living relatives in Malaysia. If the reason is political, say so lah instead of acting [in this way] ……asking him to produce his IC/Birth Certificate when they have been confiscated and destroyed by the Colonial Government then. Where is the integrity? Did the government sign the Agreement? Doesn’t integrity count for more than mere political reason? Once again, the court is being used by the executive.

This is a former Victoria Institution Dux who ganged up and organised resistance to the Japanese in his MPAJA (Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army) in which my late father was a recruit and an active cadre till it became the MCP (Malayan Communist Party) after World War 2.

Interestingly, Chin Peng and his guerilla army were accused of a number of atrocities including the Baling massacre which, from information emerging in the west, was actually the handiwork of Lt. Gen. Peter Walls (rtd), then Lt. Col Peter Walls, a man tasked with the supression of the so-called emergency.

Walls is world renowned for his counter-intelligence methods which included organising and training sympathetic locals to the British cause, then releasing them to commit atrocities against innocent villagers in the earliest known “hearts and minds campaign”.

Wall’s unofficial army, the local recruits, were directed by the special forces under his command. They would dress like guerilla’s in non-standard issue gear, distribute pro-communist pamphlets and chant slogans to make their deeds appear consistent with the anti-Communist propaganda of that time. So, survivors would report they were attacked by Chin Peng’s men. And it would make headlines.

Chin Peng was an ideologue much like PV Sharma whom Lee Kuan Yew banished to Beijing in the early 1960s. The difference is that he was prepared to and did take up arms when excluded from the democratic process. Others willingly laid down and took what they got.

Chin Peng fought a guerilla war against the British government still embedded in post-colonial Malaya. He was like others who complain today, from even the non-Communist sectors like many Malay [Malaysians], that they were excluded from the supposedly “all inclusive independence talks”.

The assassination of Sir Henry Gurney is another infamous act attributed to Chin Peng for which the evidence is unclear to hang guilt on the man. It was the 9/11 of its day and all of the “evidence” was so quickly obtained to establish the “fact” that the guilty party was the MCP.

Peter Walls, who later went on to train and direct the campaign in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, claimed, admitted and was proved to be the man behind the political assassinations, massacres and other so-called counter intelligence special operations which saw thousands of innocent villagers “suspected of collaboration with the enemy” slaughtered in a most brutal fashion in both these countries.

Back to Ong Boon Hwa. He satisfies the residency qualification from the admission of the government to his activities, whatever these are, in Malaya for decades. His records from the prestigous Victoria Institution must also be admitted in an affidavit in support of his claim. Additionally it must be borne in mind that the British still hold all documents relating to this man in their meticulous archives on Malaya.

To banish him is to create a precedent which future leaders will live to regret. The Quran does not recognise sultans, maliks and rajas. In fact, it denounces them. Yet the state in all its proclaimed Islamic glory honours and venerates them.

We have all come a long way from the witches of Salem. If the South Africans under a most brutal regime of apartheid could find truth and justice in forgiveness and move forward, surely the Malaysian government and the proponents of Islam can do the same and forgive this man in his twilight years. He could well be put on the lecture circuit and impart great knowledge to soldiers, politicians and students of politics in his retirement. He could also put history right and that may well be the factor that drives fear into the hearts of many.

Isaiah Berlin once said: “Greatness is the ability to turn paradox into platitudes.”